Category Archives: Services

What is the cost of a missed call ?

At Hold Everything, London’s most prestigious virtual office we offer you the opportunity to have a London 020 number so when your busy and don’t want to be disturbed we can answer your calls.

So we asked what is the worth of a missed call ?

A missed call means different things to different people. To some it is just a cold caller trying to get information and money from you through a non-geographical number, but for others, especially those who own their own company, it can mean lost business and a chance to gain valuable new clients.

A missed call means your company is not only missing potential new clients but also retaining and providing a good quality service for those ongoing customers too as that is the service they expect and signed up for.

Excellent communication systems are vital for a top business and are crucial to stand out from other competitors. Why would a potential client do business with a company or person they cannot get hold of?

Today’s society consists of people who want instant gratification. They want their questions answered and problems solved immediately, by humans, not a robotic voice at the end of line or a voicemail service.

When customers are greeted by an automated service or voicemail they are left feeling unheard, dissatisfied with your service, and highly likely to move on to the next company.

If you find yourself missing calls day in day out, constantly reeling messages from your voicemail and chasing the caller back for their business, why not take advantage of a virtual office’s telephone answering service.

Research has shown that very small businesses who employ 20-49 workers suffer the most from missing phone calls, and as a group they lost over £36.5 million over a year period. Those businesses with 50-99 employees lost over £35.3 million, whilst those with 111-250 employees lost over £17.7 million. Showing that no matter the size of your company whether you’re an independent business or a larger enterprise, you can benefit from a telephone answering service.

Not only do we answer your calls and take messages allowing you to have all the contact information and topic in writing, this also frees up your time to concentrate more on running your business, and avoiding those meaningless sales call.

So, is it worth the risk to miss that phone call because you are on the underground with no service? After all you never know who is going to be at the end of the line.

So what do we offer ?

At Hold Everything your calls will be answered in a professional manner with the greeting you choose. The messages taken will be sent to you directly and you can return the calls as soon as you are available. This way you can make sure your business is making as much revenue and gaining as many new customers as possible, as well as keeping old customers happy with your service.

Mollie Churney

Business rate increase

Friday, 31 March 2017 14:32

Richard Cooper

0 Comments

A business rate is a tax on business properties so that those who occupy non-domestic property can contribute towards the expense of local services. The revaluation of business rates will become effective on April 1st after it was deferred from 2015 as to not interfere with the general election. Looking at London specifically, the increases mean that those businesses, such as independent cafes and retailers inside Central London could be persuaded and forced to move their business or parts of their business, such as a head office, outside of London. As they now have to deal with salaries, rent and an increased business rates as well as other business expenses.

By using a virtual office the services that Hold Everything can offer will allow you a great presence and NO business rate charge.

The LCCI ComRes survey found that:

17% of firms would move activities outside of London,

18% of firms would reduce staff numbers,

22% would reduce recruitment and

27% would reduce capital investment.

Additionally, within the construction and property trade 35% agreed that the new business rates will mean paying more in business rates than rent.

This providing evidence for the fact that depending on what trade one works in will depend on how much the business rates will affect their business. Many well-known corporations based in London which will be greatly affected, organisations with large premises or multiple locations such as TGI Fridays, Harrods, Selfridges, St Pancras Station could be affected whilst and The O2 Arena it is reported will suffer from a 142% rise in business rates.

Taking restaurants as an example, this increase will mean that the big chains, such as the well know pizza companies and American style burger restaurants will have to serve millions more meals and thus collect millions more checks to cover the cost of the business rate without increasing their prices to the consumers. Now because such a high demand is unreasonable to create especially in this unstable economy, the only solution is to unfortunately for the consumer to increase the prices of the products sold and unfortunately for the employee to reduce recruitment and decrease the staff numbers. In addition, for the small independent businesses that are still trying to overcome the increasing rent will be forced to close or mover to cheaper locations outside of central London.

The Federation of Small Businesses explained that London is in “serious danger of losing its vital support system of micro and small businesses”, which arguably brings life to London.

Therefore, the rising prices of business rates which in turn creates products being sold for larger amounts results in less consumer spending, meaning that the government still needs money to cover their costs so will increase taxes elsewhere, thus resulting in more business closure and relocation. This vicious circle could be detrimental to London’s economy.

One solution to this issue of increasing rent and business rates is using and taking advantage of a virtual office. Why risk paying rent on a property that you may not be able to afford in a few months’ time? By working from home, or an office outside of London with cheaper rent, and using a virtual office as a business and registered office you can trust and have faith that your business will survive these uncertain economic times. Your outgoings will not dramatically peak and you can focus on paying salaries and other more important outgoings, such as technology and website development, rather than large amounts of rent and business rates.

Royal Mail Postal Increase March 2017

Friday, 24 March 2017 16:57

Richard Cooper

0 Comments

Royal Mails increase the price of postal charges from Monday 27th March.

Does this increase affect clients at our Virtual office in Regent Street, London – Fortunately NO .

Will it affect future clients – also NO

This is because our SIMPLY MAIL FORWARDING & OVERSEAS MAIL FORWARDING accounts will protect you from these price increases as our packages include mail forwarding within the set monthly charges.

So how much has the charges increased ?

A first-class stamp will cost 65p a second-class stamp will cost 56p (both increasing by one pence),

a large first-class letter will be 98p (an increase of 2p) and a large second-class letter will be 76p (an increase of 1p). Cost of sending packages will increase as well. Royal Mail has since said that the reason for this is “to help ensure the sustainability of the universal postal service”. See price list:-

It is no surprise that the traditional form of letter sending through the highly recognisable red post boxes that we see round every corner has been in decline since the rise of; computers, the internet, email and faxing, as well as the UK’s recent decision to remove itself from the EU. Thus the traditional forms of communication are being penalised because of it, whilst the modern entities begin to take over.

However, is this 1 or 2p increase really a big deal?

One could argue no, not for those who occasionally and individually send mail, for example the occasional birthday card. But for companies and corporations that send mail regularly, such as mail order companies whom may include free delivery in their offer to attract more customers, this does add up and can equate to quite a percentage of their outgoing funds. This money could effectively be spent elsewhere to create a higher profit.

We spoke to Neil Giller of http://www.centraldirectmail.com/ he said “this increase affects our clients on price wise, as a result of this we use alternative mailing distribution companies which will keep the relative costs down for our clients” he continued saying “this means that Royal Mail are less competitive and thus leaving themselves more exposed to potentially losing more business.”

In support of his clients he said “It also means that we have to monitor our margins for our clients as they look to reduce the size of their mailings and from the first class to second class options again to keep their costs down, again this increase from Royal Mail may have an impact on the volumes Royal Mail may carry as a result of constant increases”.

In summary he advised – “Small margins add up, where we were sending 10,000 items for a client a few years ago, now the same 10,000 derives a much small margin for us, thus we need to look at alternative methods of distribution”.

3 ways to make the most of Virtual Office

Monday, 23 March 2015 12:06

0 Comments

Virtual Office has a number of great benefits and these can be utilised by any number of companies from a wide range of sectors.

Here are 3 of our essential tips to help you make the most of your Virtual Office solution, from how to manage your Virtual Office business and optimise on some of the benefits, through to successfully communicating and interacting with your employees.

#1

It’s business as usual!

When you choose a Virtual Office package from Hold Everything this entitles you to use our prestigious London address on Regent Street as your registered business address. This can allow your company to be immediately respected and taken notice of without a client judging you for lacking a credible address.

However, importantly this is your address. You don’t need to hide it (or necessarily show it off). The beauty of Virtual Office is that you have a dedicated high end address to give to clients, use on your website, accept mail to, and so forth – but this should not have interfere with the way your business is run. Use the address as you would a real office address, it should become part of who you are as a company.

#2

“How can I help you?”

One key benefit you can take advantage of as part of your Hold Everything package is a dedicated telephone receptionist. Whether you are a small start up one-man show, a business owner working from your family home or part of a team who work remotely from various locations – lacking a constant available telephone line can be a major disadvantage. It can also feel less professional to give out your home or mobile number to potential clients. With Virtual Office you will receive a specific London telephone number which is answered in your company name and dealt with to your bespoke requirements.

As well providing a professional front for your business, your receptionist will make sure that a client call never goes unanswered or through to voice mail. They can either pass the call through to a chosen employee when available or take a message on your behalf. Either way your clients will feel well looked after and understood.

#3

At your fingertips…

Technology is essential to successful communications. Having the flexibility to work from home and hire staff from anywhere in the world is a huge benefit of Virtual Office, but you want to ensure you still feel engaged with and connected to your employees as well as your clients.

There are so many methods at your disposal which make working in a virtual team both easy and efficient, from conference calls or Skype, to Dropbox or Google docs, there is a new generation of communication technologies upon us to be utilised.

Explore the virtual opportunities

These are just a few of the many ways you can get the most out of the benefits of Virtual Office. You can also use the mail forwarding service, hireable meeting space and have the opportunity to save both money and time for your business.

Improving our structure, to improve your services

Tuesday, 29 October 2013 15:01

0 Comments

What are the three key factors when choosing a successful business solution? I believe they are:

· Value for money

· Ease of use

· Business specific options

Bearing this in mind and with the aim of providing customised solutions for individual companies, we have looked at restructuring the key services we offer and we are excited to be able to introduce a number of clear business packages.

With a wide range of services available we can provide you with a prestigious London address from which to conduct your business, mail receiving and forwarding services, virtual office space, meeting room hire and a national and international low cost courier service along with other services designed to meet your specific business needs.

The introduction of our new packages will allow for you, the customer, to easily navigate through our choice of selected services which will be organised to help you find the optimal solution for your company. This new hassle free system will be ideal for young start-up companies. By selecting the most suitable package, it will allow you to immediately benefit from our low effort, high return services.

I know that image and reputation are key when you are starting a business, and can be essential to your long-term success. Our straightforward package options will enable you to instantaneously create a premium status for your business. This will give you theopportunity to build a credible reputation for the company and in turn, gain a competitive advantage over industry rivals.

In addition to restructuring our existing services, Hold Everything has recently teamed up with a number of leading service providers. These new partnerships have opened doors to allow us to offer even more services which will feature in our tailored business packages.

Getting our on-line, in line

To complement our updated offerings I have decided to use this opportunity to make both aesthetic and functional improvements to the current website. As well as improving the overall look of the website, the new design will aim to maximise:

· User Experience

· Accessibility

· Engagement

I feel that it is essential for the website to accurately represent the modern and progressive business services Hold Everything offers.

Whilst our vision and brand values have never changed, we are constantly working to improve the services we can offer your business. The website revamp will reflect this, with a clear, contemporary layout and a focus on optimising the user experience to allow you to easily navigate through and explore our new and existing services.